When you love somebody this much, you just have to say hello.

Yom chamishi, 4 Av 5770.

 Rabbi Elan Adler and Rebbetzin Dr. (I love saying that) Rivkah Lambert Adler are two of the nicest and funniest people you will ever meet.

They have touched thousands of lives in very positive ways.  Rabbi Adler is a sought-after speaker, and was a dynamic and well-loved congregational rabbi in the United States.  Besides giving over wonderful Torah in an inspirational manner, Rabbi Adler is arguably the Jewish nation's nearest equivalent to Jonathan Winters.  (For the younger crowd, Winters was Robin Williams' comedic mentor.)  A punnier fellow you'll never know.

Okay, Rabbi...  now that I've mentioned you first, I want to talk about my dear friend, Rivkah.

 I know that Rabbi Adler will agree with me that one of the best things he ever did in his life was to marry Rivkah.  (She and I agreed years ago during a shiur we both took that if we had gone to school together, the teacher would have had to separate us.)

"Rivkah" and "love of Eretz Yisrael" mean the same thing.

Rivkah has wanted to make Israel her home for many years.  During the time that this desire could not be fulfilled, she channeled it by helping hundreds of other people make aliyah, or at least keep the "bren" for aliyah alive in their hearts, through the Baltimore Chug Aliyah.  She educated and sympathized, strengthened and empathized -- and wept copiously when she sent her "chicks" out of the nest.  She admitted that it was because she was happy for them, and also that she was sad for herself.  As she used to say, "Every time I send one of you to Israel, there is one less person here who can understand me."  She expected that it would be well into the decade before she would have the chance to make aliyah.

But Hashem makes miracles.  And years ahead of schedule, Rivkah and her dear family are finally Home.

This time, we -- Rivkah's chicks -- were crying as much as she.  First at the NBN Welcome Ceremony, and then at the Baltimore Welcome Party given by those hosts par excellence, the Schamroths.

Below are some photos of that special gathering.  May many more of our friends be inspired to join us very soon.  May those who have been inspired for a long time find the obstacles cleared from their paths, for only the best reasons; and may they gain strength from Hashem if they must continue to wait.  Remember, if you long for Israel with all of your hearts, you are counted as if you already dwell here.

Follow the continuing saga of Rivkah's & Elan's & Ariella's & Shani's Great Aliyah Adventure at Bat Aliyah.

Glossary: 
Torah: The totality of Jewish learning is encompassed by this word.
Shiur: Torah lecture or class
Eretz Yisrael: the land of Israel, special to Jews because it was the land given as an inheritance by G-d
Chug: club, society
Bren: Yiddish for a burning love or desire for something
Aliyah: immigration to Israel
Hashem: G-d

Send A Friend to Israel Contest

Yom chamishi, 7 Elul 5769.

 Almost twenty years ago, I fell head over heels in love with Israel -- and I spent the next decade and a half driving my husband crazy.  When he was finally crazy enough, he brought me here to live.

The Dearly Beloved has always liked this picture.  I had just figured out how to ask for something -- the ancient asimonim, probably -- and I felt like I could actually live in this exotic place.  It was the success that made the smile; but to him, it was the face of somebody who had found her makom.

During the years between that first visit to Israel and finally making aliyah, many of my friendships were with people who also longed for a home in Eretz Yisrael.

Of course -- how else could it be?  Who else could understand the longing, the fits of tears brought on by "HaTikvah," the daily fascination with an obscure internet radio station broadcasting illegally from a ship off the Mediterranean coast?

One of my best friendships developed with a very special woman who not only listened to my whining about a home in the Holy Land -- she eventually became instrumental in helping me and many other Jews to fulfill that dream.

Rebbetzin Dr. Rivkah Lambert Adler has not yet been permitted to fulfill this dream for herself.  But during the several years that she has nurtured "her baby," the Baltimore Chug Aliyah, she has shepherded a significant number of us from "our father's home" to the land that Hashem showed to the Jewish people and gave to them as an inheritance.  She set up meetings for us with Nefesh B'Nefesh representatives, as well as with people who taught us about banking and shipping and every other aspect of surviving in our future new home.  For some of us, she made the dream seem possible.  For others, she kept the dream alive, when "reality" would have crushed it.

Until Hashem allows Rivkah to come home, she blogs her love of the land, her desire to walk among the people as a citizen, her angst at being "outside the candy store, looking in."  And she and her dear husband, Rabbi Elan Adler, keep bringing speakers to Baltimore to remind every Jew that he is a potential oleh, that his land is calling him home.  And sometimes she visits us here in Israel, and reminds us of what the fever to be here felt like.

  Please take a little time to look over Rivkah's blog.  It is called Bat Aliyah.  As she says, "On September 11, 2001, I had an epiphany and realized that it was time to come Home."

I wish that every Jew in Chutz l'Aretz could want Aliyah the way this beautiful and precious soul does.  She is intelligent, funny, erudite.  Everyone who reads of her love for Israel and for the Jewish people wants to be part of that love affair.

If you are a blogger, and have not yet decided whom to nominate for the opportunity to fly aboard a Nefesh B'Nefesh flight to interview incoming olim, please consider my dear friend, Bat Aliyah.

Glossary:
Asimonim:  tokens used to operate Israeli payphones -- now obsolete
Makom:  place (here, "the place one belongs")
HaTikvah:  the Israeli national anthem
Chug:  club or organization
Oleh:  immigrant to Israel
Bat Aliyah:  Daughter of Aliyah -- one who "is a child of" the mitzvah of settling the land of Israel
Chutz l'Aretz:  anywhere outside the land of Israel

A response to a heart-sick friend (with a few postcard hugs)

Yom revi'i, 10 Shevat 5769.

                 
My dear friend, "Bat Aliyah,"

You know I love your writing, and your nearly palpable longing for the move to Israel.  When I read your most recent post, "Not in Kansas Anymore OR Grieving for Leaving," I thought -- no, I remembered how hard it is to be you right now. 

How do you explain your love for Israel without sounding to those around you a little mawkish and silly?  After all, they are worried about the global financial crisis.  How will they afford tuition for their five kids, and the mortgage on that house they thought they could afford a few months ago?  Israel is a nice dream -- for after the kids grow up.  Unless they don't want to move with the grand-kids, of course...  Israel is something we pray for at Pesach, with all our hearts.  But as a day-to-day actual, physical longing?  Maybe after the Moshiach comes...

There is no way to write a big sigh of sympathy/empathy...  so you'll just have to hear it in your mind.

My heart hurts for you (and for my memories of exactly the feelings you describe, back in the day when I was walking around in your tennies).

My neshama is glad for one more island of proof for the Ribono shel Olam to see that there are those who love His gifts with all their souls.  (See, Tatte!  Don't You think THIS is the last of the cumulative mitzvot You have been waiting for?  Can we have the Geula now, please?)

My heart leaps with joy for you, because few people know the pleasure you will feel when you finally, finally get your wish.  Maybe people who have waited a decade or two to have their first child.  Maybe they can understand what it feels like, when Hashem finally says yes.

 

 

Can't fix it.  But I can hold your hand.    

               
Love,
Ruti

Glossary:
neshama:  soul
Ribono shel Olam:  Master of the Universe
Tatte:  Papa
mitzvot:  commandments
Geula:  Final Redemption